Isabelle Czernichowski-Lauriol, geological engineer and doctor of geosciences at BRGM, received an honorary lifetime achievement rock pick awarded by the ENSG on 23 March 2018. 
26 March 2018
ENSG’s “Class of 2018” and the winner of the 2018 honorary rock picks

ENSG’s “Class of 2018” and the winner of the 2018 honorary rock picks. 

© C. Mahlberg - Committee of the Association of Engineers of the ENSG 

During the award ceremony for the incoming class of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie, on 23 March 2018 in Paris, Isabelle Czernichowski-Lauriol was presented with a Rock Pick of Honour. It was awarded by the committee of the Association of ENSG Engineers for her exemplary record and international expertise in the geological storage of CO2, a technology to combat global warming. As such, it was she who then handed out the rock picks to the school's latest graduates.

Isabelle Czernichowski-Lauriol's career path

Isabelle Czernichowski-Lauriol graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie in 1984 and from the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine in 1988. She joined BRGM in 1988 to model fluid-rock geochemical interactions. Her career has led her to carry out globally recognised work in the field of geothermal energy and then, since 1993, in the field of underground CO2 storage. Isabelle is President Emeritus of the association CO2GeoNet, the European network of excellence on the geological storage of CO2, and coordinator of the French node of ECCSEL (European Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Laboratory Infrastructure).

She led the FP7 project CGS Europe, a pan-European initiative to coordinate CO2 storage issues, and from 2010 to 2013 was in charge of the French National Research Agency's (ANR) CO2 Capture and Storage programme.

She currently holds the position of Regional Public Research Market Manager in BRGM's Development Department.

The ENGS’s “rock picks” ceremony

This ceremony, which has become a tradition, aims to establish a strong link between the school's students and the engineers who have already graduated from the school through a handover, symbolised by the geologist's rock pick.

For the 2018 ceremony, the ENGS’s Association of Engineers decided to honour five engineers, alumni of the school, who stood out in 2017 and in previous years.